https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upLc2rJIuro
Deans, members of our university’s faculty, friends of ORT, and dear graduates, I welcome you to this graduate commencement ceremony, an occasion to recognize the tremendous effort you have put forth. You can be proud; your presence here today is a testament to your determination, your ability, and your resilience in the face of challenges.
Today is a day to be proud, but also a day to give thanks. To thank your families for their patience, your classmates for supporting one another, and those special teachers who inspired you throughout this journey. For our part, we also want to express our gratitude—to thank you for placing your trust in our university during this stage of your education. We thank you for what we have learned.
Education is a collaborative endeavor between teachers and students; we learn from each of you as we teach. We hope we have met your expectations for intellectual and professional growth. We hope we were always there when you needed us, and we hope we have prepared you to think freely and to be skeptical of dogmas and ready-made solutions. Our goal is to teach you how to think, not what to think.
Today I pay public tribute to my dear friend, admired colleague, and co-founder of the modern ORT, Vice President Julio Fernández. Julio is retiring in a few days after several decades of leading some of the university’s most important projects. When there’s an easy problem, people usually turn to rector. When there’s a difficult one, people turn to some of the seasoned deans, but when a problem seems unsolvable, they turn to Julio.
Julio was always there for us with his brilliant intellect and supernatural calm in the many challenges we have faced. With Julio, one never feels alone. Julio is irreplaceable, but I am confident that the new vice-rectors—Eduardo Hipogrosso, Pablo Landoni, and Daniel Oliveri—will enable us to continue our development and our mission of educating Uruguayans.
This year we lost a great woman, my beloved mother, Charlotte de Grünberg. Her light has not gone out; she continues to shine upon us. Her work transcended boundaries that once seemed insurmountable. She was a remarkable female entrepreneur at a time when such women were few and far between. She founded a new university in a country that was accustomed to having only one. She recognized the importance of integrating technology into national education nearly 50 years ago, when it was a highly underappreciated educational option. She faced prejudice and difficulties as a woman, as a Jew, and as the leader of a private educational institution, but she confronted them with resilience and determination.
Her life began in fear, as a woman on the run and a refugee from war. For years, she was excluded from school and from any semblance of a normal life because she was Jewish during the Nazi occupation of her country, Belgium, but she refused to see herself as a victim. She raised a family, founded an institution, and, in the final years of her life, decided to share her story—told with extraordinary talent and affection by Ruperto Long.
My mother was an immigrant who very quickly came to feel Uruguayan and was very proud of her new country, always supported by her life partner, my dear father, Dr. José Grünberg, who is with us today. She learned our language and our customs, recognized the many strengths of our culture, and worked to address its shortcomings. She did not work solely for her own benefit. Through ORT, she wanted to provide what she lacked in her childhood: education, dignity, and autonomy.
He knew how to create a culture and a spirit that guides us; he knew how to build a team that was—and still is—like his family. Many of us owe him a great deal, and all he asked of us in return was to carry on his mission. Carrying on his mission is a huge responsibility, and we will do our best to live up to it.
Dear graduates. Some of you must be thinking about your next steps. Should you seek the stability of a job or the adventure of starting your own business? Should you dedicate yourself to public service or to personal growth? There are no right answers to these questions. Each person must find their own path. Every choice involves risks; there are always paths left untaken. Don’t wait for the perfect moment to do what you believe is important—the perfect moment never comes. Trust yourselves; if you don’t trust yourselves, others won’t trust you either.
Be prepared to risk what you value, and to value what you risk. Lead with integrity, empathy, and respect for those you lead. Seek a shared purpose, intellectual honesty, and the loyalty that arises from working together. Always remember that intelligence is a gift, but empathy is an attitude.
Dear graduates. You are graduating into a turbulent world and a state of moral confusion. Amid this moral regression, racism has reemerged in one of its worst forms: anti-Semitism. Some of the world’s leading universities, after years of proclaiming themselves at the forefront of the anti-racism movement, have now allowed the exclusion of Jewish students and faculty. How could anti-Semitism resurface after the terrible lessons of the Holocaust, after decades of statements and resolutions against racism and anti-Semitism? How did anti-Semitism manage to re-enter some societies?
To paraphrase the late English rabbi and philosopher Jonathan Sacks, anti-Semitism has managed to re-enter some societies because it is a virus, and like all viruses, it has mutated so that our defenses no longer recognize it. This virus is no longer spread so much by brown shirts as by green flags and red berets. It is spread by feminist organizations that deny the rapes and femicides of victims they do not approve of. It is spread by media outlets that pass off journalists as terrorists. It is spread by international organizations that treat the State of Israel by different standards than all other countries. Hatred of Jews is no longer based on a supposedly different god, but on their decision to have their own state.
We should all be alarmed. Anti-Semitism is a symptom of a serious collective illness that heralds a breakdown in social cohesion. The reservoirs of hatred that certain groups are filling against Israel are highly flammable. Hatred that begins against certain groups never ends there. Societies contaminated by racist hatred start by inventing enemies to hate and end up devouring themselves. With anti-Semitism, democracy, human rights, and freedom inevitably come to an end. We all have an ethical duty to combat and defeat racism and anti-Semitism. We must learn to live together without fear of those who think differently, without fear of those who pray differently, without fear of the immigrant who seeks an opportunity among us, just as most of our grandparents once sought.
Dear graduates. Keep in mind that the challenge facing your generation is the emergence of new forms of intelligence—a domain that has, until now, been the exclusive preserve of humans. Artificial intelligence will not be just another technological change; it will impact all human activities, and that generates concern—it creates anxiety that humans will be replaced by machines. But the relationship between artificial intelligence and human intelligence is not a zero-sum game; it is not true that the more jobs artificial intelligence can perform, the fewer jobs humans will have.
The synergy between people and machines has the potential to bring greater value and prosperity to everyone, but it requires adaptation. People will not be competing with intelligent machines; they will be competing with other people who know how to use them better. In fact, the ability to learn will become one of the essential human skills, and our education system will need to transform itself to cultivate this ability at every level and for every student. We humans will have to constantly retrain and adapt. The great challenge will be to ensure that the speed of our relearning exceeds the speed of technological change.
Unfortunately, this is the one major issue missing from the upcoming major debate on social security in our country. There is an attempt to return to the Uruguay of the 1950s, with early retirement and no individual savings, but we already know how that all ended—and it will end the same way again if we repeat the same mistakes.
If we continue to focus on debates from the last century, we will find ourselves not only without viable retirement plans but also without sustainable jobs. We need to aim for a system for 2050, not for 1950. A system that promotes employability throughout one’s working life, not just income after retirement. A life course in which 80 percent of learning takes place in the first 20 percent of one’s life will no longer be viable.
We’re going to have to figure out how to fund a system that ensures everyone has access to lifelong learning. A system that allows them to stay one step ahead of technological change, because otherwise they’ll be left behind in the workforce. A system that prevents a divide from forming between those who can be educated and everyone else.
Dear graduates. We have much to be proud of in our country, but of course there is still much to be done. That is your mission: to help take our society to the next level on our path to development. Find your path, pursue your ambitions, but always consider how you will contribute to our beloved country. Make it increasingly fair and prosperous, increasingly innovative and dynamic. Whatever you do, wherever you are, know that ORT will always be your home.
Thank you very much.